Category Archives: Global Citizenship

In Pearl class, we have been learning about Fairtrade. This is something that everyone in school has been looking at and links to the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development as set out by the United Nations.

First we looked at what Fairtrade actually is:

Trade that is fair

People and countries sell things to each other and farmers sell the crops that they grow.

Fairtrade buyers want to make things better for farmers and they agree to pay farmers a fair price for their crops.

Then we looked asked, how does Fairtrade work?

Fairtrade farmers know that they will get a good price for their goods.

These farmers can make plans for their farms, spending money to make them better and safer.

These farmers must also agree to pay their workers a fair price.

Fairtrade buyers pay extra money too, called a premium. This money could then be spent on building a new school, health centre or bridge over a river.

We know when goods are Fairtrade when…

If you see this symbol on products, then you know that it is Fairtrade.

Can you find this mark on anything in your house?

Where do Fairtrade products come from?

Fairtrade products come from countries all over the world.

Bananas are grown in tropical regions.

Cocoa to make chocolate with comes from countries such as the Ivory Coast in Africa.

Tea and coffee also comes from hot places.

Fairtrade flowers grow well in Kneya’s sunny climate.

Mines in South America supply glittering Fairtrade gold.

Pearl class decided that they wanted to finish the work that they had been completing on Fairtrade, by having a Fairtrade Tea Party. They decided what they wanted at the tea party and then sent Miss Varley on a little shopping trip. Here is what she was able to get.

It was so lovely to complete our learning on Fairtrade with a chance to all sit down together and eat and drink some delicious foods. Cheers!

This year we celebrated Wear it Wild Day again in association with WWF. We raised money to help endangered animals all across the globe. We came to school dressed as our favourite wild animals.

Some of us didn’t know what endangered meant so we used the WWF website to help us and we learnt about some animals.

Endangered means when a species of animal is at serious risk of being made extinct.

Did you know that these animals were endangered?

Giant Panda

Borneo Orang-utan

Emperor Penguin

Black Rhinoceros

Polar Bear

Snow Leopard

We also linked this to the work that we continue throughout school linked to the 17 Global Goals. Click here to read our post about The World’s Largest Lesson and a little bit more on what the Global Goals are. We learnt that the work we have done link to the Global Goals 14 and 15.

We researched using fact sheets about these endangered animals to help us to learn more and then create posters to make people aware of the dangers these animals face.

Akram – We need to look after these animals before they are gone forever.

Alfie – We don’t want them to go the same way as the dinosaurs!

Oliver – Animals find it difficult in nature to survive if they haven’t got enough food or water or shelter.

Dannilou – Our money will help lots of animals forever!

Thank you to all of the parents and carers who donated money to this worthy cause. The children in Pearl class loved coming to school dressed as their favourite animal.

This week, we completed the World’s Largest Lesson. This is aimed at making adults and children across the world more aware of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. In 2015, 193 countries across the world agreed by 2030 to achieve the following three things:

End extreme poverty

Fight inequality and injustice

Tackle climate change

Did you know that there were 17 Global Goals in total?

Do you know what any of them are?

We watched a short video that helped us to explain what the World’s Largest Lesson was about. Click here if you would like to watch this video again.

This year’s focus is on food, sustainability and hunger.

We watched a video that helped us to understand the focus this year. Click here if you would like to watch the video again and remind yourself of what the video was about.

We then set to work on deciding what our favourite foods were and looked at where they came from, how they got to our plate and what they were packaged in.

We promise to look after our world. We promise not to throw materials that can be recycled like cardboard and plastic in the bins. We promise to try and eat every piece of food that we have on our plates. Pearl class – September 2017

This week, the whole school has been busy learning about Global Citizenship.

KS1 decided that they looked at the theme of Poverty and Hunger. These are just 2 of the 17 global goals.

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.

In Pearl class, we didn’t really know what poverty was so we explored this a little bit further. We looked at what might cause people to live in poverty and then thought about some solutions that we could use to prevent people from being in poverty. This happens in the UK and well as around the world.

We had some really thoughtful ideas and tried hard to think of sustainable solutions!

We also had a day where we moved around the different classes in KS1.

With Miss Duddle, we learnt about our basic needs.

With Miss Mason, we learnt about the uneven distribution of food around the world.

With Miss Breeze, we learnt about where food comes from.

And with Miss Varley and Miss Deighton, we learnt about how poverty affects people’s lives and how to prevent it.

Back in the Spring term, we were learning about Global Citizenship across school and in Y2, we were learning about water.

Some of the children decided that they wanted to write letters to David Cameron, the Prime Minister and our local MPs to highlight the issue that not everyone in the world has access to clean water – and this was something that we really disagreed with.

Well…we have had a few responses to our letters.

The first letter came from 10 Downing Street.

Miss Varley was so excited to see the envelope had the 10 Downing Street logo on it.

The next letter came from the Department for International Development.

We are so pleased that people have taken the time to read our letters.

Finally, the last letter came from our Sheffield MP Louise Haigh and directly from the Houses of Commons. Miss Varley got very excited again!

As well as a thank you letter to the class, each child who sent a letter for a personal thank you letter from Louise. We are so excited!

Across school this week, we have been learning about Global Citizenship and in KS1 we have been focusing on water.

We know that water is useful in lots of different ways. We can use water for:

washing ourselves

washing our clothes

drinking

painting

flushing the toilet

growing plants

cooking

We started the week by trying some watermelon as part of snack time. We all thought that it was delicious. We can’t wait to have watermelon again!

In Literacy, we watched a short film from Literacy Shed called Zahra. Click here to watch the film.

A little girl called Zahra spends all day collecting water in order to help her tree grow so she can get some shade. She travels back and forth to the water pump but it is no good, the tree won’t grow. It is not until a bead of sweat falls from Zahra’s forehead on the roots that the tree springs forth and grows protectively in order to protect her from the sun.

We looked carefully at the setting of the film and we wrote descriptively to describe the setting. We used dictionaries to try and add new vocabulary to our writing.

‘The blazing sun shone brightly over the small African village.’

‘The sandy ground was arid and burning hot.’

‘Everywhere was golden, nothing grew , there was not a cloud in the sky.’

We learnt that not everyone in the world has access to clean, safe water and this made us sad. We thought about ways that we could try and make a difference. Some children decided to write a letter to the Prime Minister and local MPs to ask for more money to be sent abroad to those that need it so that everyone can have clean, safe water.

We used school’s Twitter account as well to tweet the Prime Minister and our local MPs. We are looking forward to hearing from them soon.

On one of the days, we got the chance to move around each classroom in KS1 to learn more about what we can use water for.

We had a go at doing some messy art with water; completed an obstacle course whilst carrying a cup of water- trying very carefully not to spill a single drop; filtering water to see what some children have to do every day and we learnt about the water cycle and where water comes from.

Our final activity was to have a go at tasting some different water. Miss Varley gave us 4 different types of water to try and we completed a tasting result sheet to see what we thought about each type of water. We didn’t know which one was which until the very end. We all thought that D was the best – it was just plain water!

What you can do with your child at home:

Try to save water and not waste it on purpose.

Click here to visit the Wateraid website to learn more about water conservation.

Talk to your child about the things that they have learnt this week at school.